Tide - C1

Question 1

Who owns Tide?

Answer 1

Procter & Gamble

Question 2

When was the product first launched?

Answer 2

1946

Question 3

Was the product successful?

Answer 3

became the leading brand in America a position it maintains today.

Question 4

What was advertising agency that handled P&G’s accounts throughout the 1950s?

Answer 4

The D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B)

Question 5

What did DMB&B uniquely use in their campaign

Answer 5

DMB&B used print and radio advertising campaigns

Question 6

What ideologies and beliefs did the campaign feature?

Answer 6

the “house wife” character and the ideology that customers “loved” and “adored” Tide

Question 7

What did the post-WWII consumer boom of the 1950s result in?

Answer 7

the rapid development of new technologies for the home designed to make domestic chores easier.

Question 8

How did P+G capitalize on the 1950s consumer boom?

Answer 8

As washing machines became desirable products for the 1950s consumers products linked to these new technologies also became desirable during this time, for example, washing powder.

Question 9

Why does the advert have more copy than print adverts today?

Answer 9

With so many ‘new’ brands entering markets, potential customers typically needed more information about them than a modern audience - link to Gerbner’s cultivation theory

Question 10

What structures are used in the advert?

Answer 10

Z-lines and rule of thirds

Question 11

How is colour used?

Answer 11

Bright primary colours connote positivity which makes the audience associate this with the product

Question 12

How is font used in the advert?

Answer 12

Headings, subheadings and slogans are written in sans-serif font, connoting an informal mode of address. The details of the product are written in a serif font, connoting a more ‘serious’ information.

Question 13

How does the advert use media language to create a informal mode of address?

Answer 13

• The comic strip image
• informal lexis -“sudsing whizz”, “suds”
• “you women”
• Constance - “what women want”
• exclamatory sentences
• love heart doodles

Question 14

How can Roland Barthes’ theory of semiotics be applied?

Answer 14

• Suspense is created through the enigma of “what women want” (Barthes’ Hermeneutic Code)
• Tension-building through exclamatory sentences(Barthes’ Proairetic Code).
• The hearts have connotations of love (Barthes’ Semantic Code)
• Hyperbole and superlatives (“Miracle”, “World’s cleanest wash!”, “World’s whitest wash!”) as well as tripling (“No other…”) are used to connote the superiority of Tide

Question 15

How can Levi-Strauss’ structuralist theory be seen in Tide?

Answer 15

• Binary opposition between Tide and its competitors - “any other washday product” and “Procter and Gamble’s Tide”
• Binary opposition between men and women - “you women”

Question 16

Which adverts around the time period can be seen as connoting different ideologies?

Answer 16

Women’s land army and Rosie the Riveter

Question 17

How were different gender targeted for products during the consumerism boom?

Answer 17

Men were targeted for cars and women were targeted for domestic products

Question 18

What do the dress codes in the advert connote?

Answer 18

• Stereotypical for the 1950s
• hair curls made popular by film stars such as Veronica Lake - aspirational
• Short hair also made popular as long hair dangerous in factory
• hairband also connotes work - hair pushed back
• make up to achieve western beauty standards, make work seem glamourous, and please her husband
• dresses not practical but again glamourous and feminine
• bright colours connoting positivity

Question 19

How can David Gauntlett’s theory of identity be applied to the Tide advert?

Answer 19

Women represented in the advert act as role models o fdomestic perfection that the audience may want to construct their own sense of identity against.

Question 20

Does Tide uphold Van Zoonen’s theory?

Answer 20

No Van Zoonen’s theory is subverted as the advert shows women in a non sexual way.

Question 21

How can bell hook’s theory be applied?

Answer 21

The media sees lighter skinned women as more desirable as they uphold western beauty standards which is shown in Tide - link to postcolonialism and g
Gilroy

Question 22

Who is the target audience for the advert?

Answer 22

• affluent lower-middle class (BC1C2)
• white women
• 18-50
• married with children (nuclear family)
• heterosexual
• aspiring

Question 23

How can Stuart Hall’s reception theory be applied?

Answer 23

• the main image connotes that
the product is of prime importance this preferred reading

• direct mode of address and use of imperative (“Remember!”, “your wash”, “you can buy”) draws in the consumer
• The oppositional view is that the advert upholds stereotypes too rigidly

Question 24

How can Gerbner’s cultivation theory be applied?

Answer 24

• Aims to cultivate ideas that it is:
- the brand leader
- like nothing else
- a desirable product for its female audience
- an innovation for the domestic washing
market

• by repeating their ideologies the audience will regard them as theirs

Question 25

Finish the quote: “ Tide’s got _____”

Answer 25

“Tide’s got what women want!”

Question 26

Finish the quote: “No wonder _______”

Answer 26

“No wonder you women buy more Tide than any other washday product!”

Question 27

Finish the quote: “No soap _______”

Answer 27

“No soap - no other “suds”- no other washing product known- will get your wash as clean as Tide!”

Question 28

Finish the quote: “World’s w_____”

Answer 28

“World’s whitest wash!”

Question 29

Finish the quote: “World’s c______”

Answer 29

“World’s cleanest wash!”

Question 30

Finish the quote: “Actually____”

Answer 30

“Actually brightens colours!”

Question 31

Finish the quote: “Tide’s a ______”

Answer 31

“Tide’s a sudsing whizz even in the hardest water”